Chapter 8 - SUBLEVEL C
News reports declared Daniel Mercer missing after the explosion.
That suited him.
For the first time, whoever was watching him might hesitate.
Daniel and Noah reached Harbor Road before dawn.
The Northstar warehouse occupied six acres beside the river.
Demolition signs surrounded the property.
Work was scheduled to begin at 7:00 a.m. Monday.
Less than twenty-four hours away.
They entered through an old storm drain.
Julian’s key opened a basement utility door.
Sublevel A contained empty laboratories.
Sublevel B contained refrigerated storage.
Sublevel C did not appear on any map.
Noah found the hidden elevator.
The key activated it.
The doors opened below ground.
Warm air drifted outward.
Lights were on.
Machines hummed.
The facility was not abandoned.
Daniel and Noah moved quietly through the corridor.
Behind the first glass room stood six medical beds.
Empty.
The second contained equipment Daniel did not recognize.
The third contained a man.
Samuel Mercer.
Daniel stopped.
His father lay behind glass.
Older.
Thinner.
A respirator covered his face.
But alive.
Daniel rushed to the door.
Locked.
Noah found the control panel.
A code was required.
Daniel tried Samuel’s birthday.
Wrong.
Margaret’s birthday.
Wrong.
Then October 19.
The door opened.
Daniel entered.
“Dad.”
Samuel’s eyes opened.
For several seconds he looked confused.
Then recognition appeared.
“Daniel.”
Daniel had imagined this moment since the phone call.
He had imagined anger.
Questions.
Accusations.
Instead he knelt beside the bed and took his father’s hand.
Samuel began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel’s own eyes burned.
“We’re getting you out.”
“No.”
“What?”
Samuel looked toward Noah.
“Rebecca’s son?”
Noah stepped closer.
“Yes.”
Samuel’s expression collapsed.
“I failed her.”
“Is she dead?”
Samuel closed his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
Noah stared.
“You don’t know?”
“She escaped the facility.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
Noah leaned closer.
“Where did she go?”
“I never found out.”
Daniel interrupted.
“Dad, we have to move.”
Samuel shook his head.
“Your mother.”
“Where is she?”
Samuel pointed weakly toward the end of the corridor.
“Last room.”
Daniel ran.
Room C-19.
The door opened.
Inside stood a medical pod surrounded by monitoring equipment.
A woman lay beneath transparent glass.
Gray hair.
Thin face.
Older than the mother Daniel remembered.
But unmistakable.
Margaret Mercer.
His mother.
Her chest rose slowly.
Daniel placed both hands against the glass.
“Mom.”
Behind him Samuel said, “She’s been cycling in and out of suppression for twenty-four years.”
Daniel turned.
“Why?”
“The first trial damaged her autonomic system.”
“You experimented on her?”
Samuel’s face twisted.
“No.”
“What happened?”
Margaret had suffered cardiac complications during surgery.
Samuel used an early Orpheus compound as an emergency measure.
It saved her.
But her body became unable to regulate normally after prolonged wakefulness.
She required periodic induced suppression.
Northstar turned her condition into research.
Samuel spent years trying to cure her.
Eventually the company would not let either of them leave.
Daniel whispered.
“You staged your death.”
“To disappear from public records.”
“But they still found you.”
“Yes.”
Noah moved toward another terminal.
“There are security cameras.”
Daniel looked.
Four figures entered Sublevel A.
Marcus Vale was among them.
Evelyn Shaw walked beside him.
And with them was the tattooed man.
Samuel saw the screen.
“You have to leave.”
“We’re taking you.”
“There isn’t time.”
“We’re not abandoning you.”
Samuel pointed toward Margaret’s pod.
“Her cycle ends in twenty-six minutes.”
“What happens then?”
“She wakes.”
Daniel swallowed.
“And?”
“If she wakes without the stabilization dose, she dies.”
Noah searched the cabinets.
“Where’s the medication?”
Samuel looked toward the screen.
“Marcus has it.”
Daniel stared.
Marcus was coming downstairs.
May you like
With the only drug that could save Margaret.
And demolition charges were already being placed above them.
